The Wine Commonsewer

Drew Carey, Mrs TWC, & Locke High School Final Score: Kids 1, UTLA Thugs 0

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Mrs TWC is in Old Town Charleston comfortably ensconced in some luxe hotel. Last weekend it was Scottsdale. I know this because it is 4th and Goal to April 15th and, of course, she's traveling. Good Old Murph.

She's written extensively about Locke High School in LAUSD, which is sort of a poster child for all that's wrong with public education in America.

On March 17, 2005, 15-year-old Delusa Allen was shot in the head while leaving Locke High School in Los Angeles, sending her into intensive care and eventually killing her.

Despite what you may think about the state of public education, it ain't your suburban school. It's the schools at the margins, the kids who've been kicked to the curb and are locked into a system where it's a good week on campus if no kid bloodied the restroom tile. The mind numbs in disbelief at the callous disregard for the welfare of these school kids.   

Mrs TWC provided the fodder and then got Steve Barr together with the boys at Reason. The result is this stunning video, which awed the IHS crowd last weekend. If this don't bring a tear for the children (or a tear of joy for the children) you got ice in your heart, man.

The film was written, produced, and edited by Ted Balaker (one of John Stossel's wunderkinds). Ted likes a nice glass of the red now and again and I'm really, really, trying to get past the name dropping here. Sorry. I believe Paul Feine shot some of the footage as did ace cinematographer, PF Bentley. More about the Drew Carey project here.

UPDATE: Just got a text message that this morning's presentation went well.

Mrs TWC is Director of Education at Reason Foundation, a free-market libertarian think tank. I don't know where those guys came up with the picture for her bio, but it doesn't look much like the chick I'm married to. She looks more like this.

If you can't see the video, it's here.

As Always,

TWC

Knuckleheads: Election 2008

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Tip of the glass to Laurie G in Az

Fred Allen On Income Tax

An income tax form is like a laundry list--either way you lose your shirt.

brief bio here.

As Ever,

TWC

Taco Bell Buys The Liberty Bell

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

One of TWC's favorite April Fools Day pranks was played by Taco Bell in 1996 when the company bought ads in several major papers, including the New York Times announcing the purchase of the Liberty Bell to help retire the national debt.

There's a cool video of of the news coverage from April 1, 1996 at the Paine PR site, the guys who conceived the campaign. The site also has a nice synopsis of the event.

Vid requires Quick Time, which can be downloaded free here.

Bonus: Liberty Bell tours America in 1915

Disclaimer: The video ends with a plug for Ron Paul.

As Ever,

TWC

Calculate Your Minimum Required Distribution

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Once you've retired and reach age 70 you must begin to draw on your retirement funds. Worse, there is an IRS imposed minimum annual withdrawal requirement. If you miss it, the penalty is huge. Like 50% of the diff between what you took and what you were supposed to take.

The minimum withdrawal is based on a relatively complicated formula that takes into account the size of your nest egg and your life expectancy.

This used to be a pain to figure out and neither your broker nor your tax guy were especially helpful.

Tax Guy: Well, no, you really need to talk to your broker about that

Investment Guy: We can't figure that for you, you need to talk to your tax guy

Well, thanks to the miracle of the Information Age and thanks to Kiplinger you can easily calculate this yourself in about thirty seconds. That is assuming you can remember* how old you are and you can find the statement showing the balance left in your 401(k), IRA, or SEP that is.

*Sometimers Disease (noun); An occasional and often reversible failure of a memory module that is typically brought on by fatigue, the need to defrag, or plain old fashioned forgetfulness associated with, uh, well, ummm, hold on, it'll come to me. Hold on, uh [snaps fingers twice].....

Use in a sentence:

I cannot be losing my mind yet, I actually do know the name of the street.....must be Sometimers.

As Ever,

TWC